One year later, nearly half of Instagrammers use Android

Kids. They grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday that my Android phone finally became a member of the Instagram generation, only just "slightly" behind all of those iPhones out there. Now the social photo sharing service is celebrating its one year anniversary on the Google-based mobile operating system.

Philip McAllister, of the Instagram Android team, announces that "One year ago today we launched Instagram for Android. In less than a day, over a million people downloaded the app, and now nearly half of all Instagrammers use the Android app to share photos with friends, family and the world".

Since then the service has been used around the world to capture images ranging from spectacular photography to natural disasters and epic world events. McAllister explains that "Major events such as Brazil’s Círio de Nazaré festival, the 85th birthday of Thailand’s King Bhumibol, and a streak of severe thunderstorms throughout Malaysia have been captured by Android Instagrammers".

While I use the app less often than I should, it has been handy for capturing and sharing many pictures in the time I have had it, including one image that I even used right here on BetaNews last holiday season when the service saw a record 226 images uploaded per second on Thanksgiving day. With the financial backing of Facebook now behind it, there is no telling how far Instagram can go.